A ripple of anxiety swept around Sports Authority Field Sunday after a report on ESPN suggesting that Peyton Manning’s future with the Denver Broncos would hinge on post-season examination of the quarterback’s surgically repaired upper spine.

An NFL quarterback in his late 30s undergoes four delicate, complicated surgeries on a part of his body, his neck, that is itself complicated and delicate, comes back and plays two more gruelling seasons at the most vulnerable position in sports and then it’s treated as a surprise that his future depends on careful off-season evaluation of the state of his health?

Hello? Did I miss something here?

Every play, every game, every season that Peyton Manning continues to perform in the NFL is on borrowed time. It kind of goes without saying. There was a moment last week in one of his press conferences when Manning became a bit reflective, talking about enjoying the moment, about how special it is for any player to be in the playoffs with a chance at a championship.

“And so that is certainly my goal to enjoy the preparation — not just the game — to actually enjoy the preparation part of it, enjoy being around the guys,” the Broncos’ QB said. “Because certainly, the light is at the end of the tunnel for me, no question. And so, I think you enjoy these things maybe even more than maybe you have in the past.”

Manning had a battery of medical tests done on his neck at the end of last season, his first in Denver and the first since he carefully rehabbed his neck post-surgeries, missing the entire 2011 season, his last in Indianapolis. Everything checked out. He’ll have the same battery of tests again this off-season and unless he’s hoarding some important information about his physical state, there’s no reason to think those tests will reveal any disturbing development. But, they could.

If he plays next season, Manning will be 38. He still has the majority of his life to live, maybe half a century or more. He’d be absolutely crazy to push the envelope, risking living in misery the rest of his days. All of this is hardly news. It’s just common sense and it’s something that people around the Broncos have taken as simply an understood part of the deal.

After Sunday’s win over San Diego set the Broncos up to host to the AFC Championship next weekend, Manning wanted to stay in the moment.

“That is ... even the Patriots is ahead, and that question (about his neck) is way far ahead, so I am not there,” Manning said. “I’ve really been, this team has been, a one-week-at-a-time season. For all we’ve been through, losing our coach and losing different guys to injuries, that approach has served us well. I think we need to keep that approach from here on out.”

Manning at this stage of his career, may not be physically the quarterback he once was, but the intellectual property he brings to the game and to a team is incalculable. He is like an accomplished conductor of a philharmonic orchestra, coaxing out the best in each of his teammates, hitting all the right notes with impeccable timing, whether it’s feathering a perfectly located pass on third down or explaining the facts of football life to a young receiver at the end of a practice.

At the peak of his career in Indianapolis, Manning had a cadre of receivers to match any team in the NFL. Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Brandon Stokley, Dallas Clark and Edgerrin James all were in their primes. In Denver, Manning was given more or less a blank canvas. His work ethic has rubbed off on a whole new generation of young receivers like Julius Thomas, Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker and rookie running back Montee Ball.

Late in Sunday’s game, with the Chargers rallying strongly in the fourth quarter, Manning was particularly proud of how his offence was able to sustain a drive that used up the final four minutes of the game without allowing Philip Rivers and the San Diego offence to get back on the field.

“Philip got hot there at the end and I did not want to give him the ball back,” said Manning, who connected with Julius Thomas on two crucial third down conversions, one of them a third-and-17 situation.

“Julius and I have spent a lot of time working on those particular routes. After practice, in practice,” Manning said. “To me, that is one of the most rewarding parts of football. When you put that work in off to the side or after practice and it pays off in a game, it really makes it feel like it was worth it. Those two plays, specifically, were certainly worth the hard work.”

That last drive, with the crowd murmuring “Oh, no! Not again,” exorcised some of the ghosts in Manning’s closet, ghosts accumulated while posting a 9-11 — now 10-11 — playoff record over the years. It certainly wiped away the bad taste left by last season’s one-and-done playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

There is a notion among this city’s football cognoscenti that a Super Bowl win might push Manning to call it a day, no matter what the docs say. Maybe so. Manning himself probably doesn’t have a handle on that one. After all, he has now got Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in his headlights. Isn’t that enough?

PATS READY TO PLAY DOGS

Tom Brady doesn’t often get to play the underdog card, but he’s already milking it for all it’s worth as he and his New England Patriot teammates get ready to go to Denver and face the Broncos in the AFC Championship next weekend.

The Broncos opened as a five-point Vegas favourite, but early punters bet that down to 4.5 points on Monday.

“We’ve got a bunch of underdogs on our team and we’ll be an underdog again, and we’ll see how that shapes up at the end of the week,” Brady told a Boston Monday morning radio audience. “But I know we’re as tough, as physical as we’ve ever been, and that’s how we’re going to need to go out and play this game.

In their only meeting this season, playing at New England, the Broncos blew a 24-0 halftime lead, losing 34-31 in overtime. Over his career, Brady is 2-4 in games played at Denver, his worst record at any road location.

“Truthfully, I don’t turn the TV on, I don’t read anything,” Brady said. “I just try to focus on what I need to do. I know different times, coach (Bill Belichick) will make us aware of, I know when we played Baltimore nobody picked us to win and I’m sure no one is going to pick us to win this week.”

Peyton Manning's career is nearing its end

Playing on borrowed time with an evaluation on neck looming

A ripple of anxiety swept around Sports Authority Field Sunday after a report on ESPN suggesting that Peyton Manning’s future with the Denver Broncos would hinge on post-season examination of the quarterback’s surgically repaired upper spine.

An NFL quarterback in his late 30s undergoes four delicate, complicated surgeries on a part of his body, his neck, that is itself complicated and delicate, comes back and plays two more gruelling seasons at the most vulnerable position in sports and then it’s treated as a surprise that his future depends on careful off-season evaluation of the state of his health?

Hello? Did I miss something here?

Every play, every game, every season that Peyton Manning continues to perform in the NFL is on borrowed time. It kind of goes without saying. There was a moment last week in one of his press conferences when Manning became a bit reflective, talking about enjoying the moment, about how special it is for any player to be in the playoff